Bedtime Stories
by Acolyte of the Bacon God
Summary: A fic of mine from the kinkmeme. The Thane's son can't sleep, and Jordis has an idea.


Years had passed since that Dunmer girl had made a name for herself in Solitude. Years had passed since that same girl became a Thane. Since she'd practically adopted Jordis as a sister, rather than her housecarl. The Thane had been married, adopted a child, had a second on the way. And here she was, auntie Jordis, the "motht kick-butt lady to ever kick butt", according to the Thane's son. No doubt she was proud of the title: even though it came from a 7-year-old, it still meant a lot.

It had been a couple months, seven at least. Jordis was tasked with babysitting Gavril and the cat, Maxime, while the Thane and her husband were holed up upstairs and struggling to bring his sibling into the world. Gavril, bless his poor little heart, was frightened as any boy could be. Even with Maxime on his lap and Jordis at his side, the little Bosmer's knees trembled as he sat in his bed. Maxime purred her affections as his quaking hands stroked her fur, and his gaze turned to the floor. "Auntie Jordith, ith Momma gonna be okay?" he asked, his voice as unsteady as his limbs.

"She'll be fine, Gavril." Jordis gave him an uneasy smile, and ruffled his hair. She was unsure how his mother would fare, but for the boy's sake she had to be positive. "I promise." Gavril nodded understandingly, and clutched at his teddy bear. "It's getting dark out, you know. Just about time for a certain little boy to go to bed!"

"But auntie Jordith!" Gavril whined. "Jutht a few more minuteth. Pleathe?"

" 'fraid not, Gavril, you know the rules." Maxime leapt from Gavril's lap as he lay down and Jordis pulled the blanket up towards him. "But think about it! You'll be eight in a few months, and then you can go to bed later!"

He pouted, curling up in bed. "I wanna be eight now," he grumbled. "I'm not even thleepy."

"Do you want a story?"

"Aw, heck yeth!"

"Alright, well!" Jordis made herself comfortable, and Gavril held his teddy close to his chest as she started her story.  
"This story starts years ago. RIght around the time your mother became the Thane. I was appointed as her housecarl, and for some time we didn't even have the house! We camped out, made fires, killed some wolves... But one night, I guess we chose the wrong place to set up camp. It was a cave a little ways away from Whiterun. You'll go to Whiterun someday, everyone eventually does. It's a very nice city. But where was I?" She paused. "Oh, yes. We didn't realize we'd picked the wrong place until Avonis fell asleep, and I was just drifting off. Something woke me up, though, and I in turn woke her up. It was too late, though, we were surrounded!"

Gavril gasped. "Thurrounded? Thurrounded by what?!"

"By Falmer! Little, ugly, goblin-like creatures who live underground, normally. They're blind, but their other senses are incredible! Like Maxime's, they could hear us and smell us from a mile away. And mind you, we didn't stink." This brought out a giggle from the boy's lips. "Gods above, though, they were some of the scariest things I'd ever seen! They came right at us, swords and axes and bows held high. We would've been dead if both of us hadn't been trained to fight worse than Falmer."

"Worthe than Falmer? What'th worthe than Falmer?"

"Oh, I dunno. Vampires, werewolves, psychopaths... You see a lot of them in Skyrim, trust me. But there we were, surrounded, and it was so unexpected, I actually doubted we would live! Of course, that was until one of them was sent flying with a huge dent in his skull. If anyone ever tells you that your mother can't use a shield effectively, give 'em a good punch in the mouth. They knew what they were dealing with, then, but they weren't backing off. The Falmer tried making off with me, but one quick sword to the leg made him let go, and then it was in his skull." Gavril made a face, but urged her to continue. It was getting good! "You know how she has that one scar on her cheek? It's from then. One of the Falmer got in a good swing and hit her right there. Oblivion broke loose around that time. I don't know where she went, but while I was fending those horrible creatures off, this huge black cat - I don't even think it _was _a cat! - pounced them, tore off a few heads, sent 'em running. I thought it was going to kill me, but it just ran off after the Falmer. I didn't see Avonis for a few more hours, and when I did, she didn't know anything about the cat."  
"But how'd Momma mithh the big cat? Don't you uthally thee or hear about catth that big?"

"I don't know! But she was pretty adamant about not having seen it." Jordis yawned, stretching her arms. It was definitely time for bed. Nothing upstairs had changed, by the sound of it, and she felt a sharp pang in her chest. Jordis had the utmost faith in her Thane, but it didn't sound as if things were going too well. "I think it's time for me to go to bed, too," she laughed. "Goodnight!"

The Nord was halfway out of the room when that familiar, sleepy, lisping voice rang out.

"Auntie Jordith, what'th 'adamant' mean?"


End file.
